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Home
Maintenance Tasks: January
Organize your home improvement files. Review warranties and
product manuals to check on recommended maintenance for
furnaces, equipment, appliances and tools. Mark your calendar to
track scheduled upkeep and service.
Inspect furniture, cabinets and vanities for loose knobs,
pulls and hinges. Tighten or repair as necessary. Lubricate
squeaky door hinges with lightweight machine oil. Free sticky
doors by trimming edges or shimming hinges with thin pieces of
cardboard.
Fix squeaks in floors and stairs by applying weight to the
area (having a partner stand on it works) and driving an 8d or
12d galvanized finish nail through the flooring into a floor
joist or stringer. If you have access to the floor from
underneath, glue and screw backs to the floor or treads and to
the joist or stringer.
Look for bargains on discontinued appliances and tools.
Before buying, make sure that warranties are valid. Make a
room-by-room inventory of everything in your house.
In the event of fire, flood or other disaster, it will be
important in filing an insurance claim. Photographs or video of
your possessions can also be helpful.
Don't close vents to crawl spaces. If you live where pipes
can freeze and the floor becomes very cold, insulate pipes and
under the floor. Vents play an important role in contolling
condesation beneath a house.
Learn more about preventing frozen pipes...
Double-check insulation around exterior pipes that are
exposed to freezing weather to be certain that water cannot seep
under the insulation.
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